Wish
by serica
Summary: Death brings clarity. Naraku. Kikyou.
1. Prologue: Wish

**Wish**

**Summary:** Death brings clarity. Naraku. Kikyou.

**Disclaimer: **_Sengoku Otogi Zoushi Inuyasha_ is the property of Rumiko Takahashi and other parties. All translated text courtesy of _onemanga_._com_. No copyright infringement intended.

**Author's Note:** Inspired by Chapter 552 of the manga…so, it's a bit spoilerish.

**Suggested Soundtrack:** "Aimo" (short version) from _Macross Frontier

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**Prologue**

**-Wish-**

_Naraku…the Shikon no Tama…didn't grant your real wish, did it?_

He laughs quietly to himself. Had he really forgotten? He listens to the distant echoing of a heartbeat as he tries to think. What was it that he really wanted? His real wish…

He stares at them, lined like shadows, one by one before him. Where is she? He looks, but does not find. His eyes begin to blur with an unfamiliar heaviness and the figures blend together…into a single, lovely face.

_There is one thing I desire above all…_ He remembers telling her once, long, long ago.


	2. The Crimson Thread

**Wish**

**Disclaimer: **_Sengoku Otogi Zoushi Inuyasha_ is the property of Rumiko Takahashi and other parties. All translated text courtesy of _onemanga_._com_. No copyright infringement intended.

**Author's Note:** A jumbled bit of introspection...

(Edit: In case you're not familiar with it, the title of this chapter refers to the red string of fate from East Asian folklore.)

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**Chapter One**

**-The Crimson Thread-**

He sensed the droning waves of pain pulsing through him even before he woke. His skin burned as if pierced by icy needles. During the never-ending hours he spent drifting through nightmares, he had lost his grasp of time.

_They come at him. Faces that were blurs in the bloody raids of the past now materialize with shocking lucidity. One by one they decay into vengeful carcasses. They tear at him with jagged teeth and fingers still mottled with flesh. The smell of death, overwhelmingly sweet and relentless, sting at his eyes and pull at his innards. His body feels as if it were being turned inside out._

_Blindly swinging his sword, he tries to fight them off and escape, but they swarm around him, their reanimated bodies perpetually rising after being cut down. He falls, too weak to resist. Sprawled on the ground, he vaguely remembers dying like this before. _

_Then, he is back among the living ghosts. _

He had lost count of how many times he peered into death. Always teetering on the edge, it seemed, but never granted peace. At first, he thought that he had finally descended into hell. Peering through the blood that splashed into his eyes, he had destroyed his wispy hopes for salvation.

Purity, he supposed, was for the weak. It was for people who wore painted faces, who lived and died in fear, who couldn't help but obey the wretched biddings of fate. And what was fate but the base amusement of the gods? Gods and their playthings...he wouldn't submit to that game. No, he made sure that the gods bowed down to him. Hell was a small price to pay for that paradise.

_Every so often, the soothing swirls of a voice ensnares his mind. It shields him from the blows of retribution and lifts him out of his sordid body. For a few, fleeting moments, he floats in bliss. Then, the heaviness of a hand upon his brow and the sweetness of water spilling down his throat wrenches him back. _

He was not dead.

How long had it been since that fool Rasetsu flew into his idiotic craze? He asked himself when he remembered that he was indeed asleep. Where am I now? What is happening? Focusing on his questions, he tried to awake from the nightmare. But when the faces came, he forgot all over again. And so he continued fighting, killing, dying. Over and over again. Until the voice returned.

He began to thirst for that voice. Hours upon hours, day upon days, he fought. Each time he died a little bit more. Yet he always waited for that voice to lift him away when everything else faded to gray. And when it left, always tried to never let go.

As time passed, the voice became clearer. Sometimes, he could just make out the murmur of goodbye and hello. Clinging onto those precious syllables, he caught more and more in his greed. Two words became ten, and ten words became a thousand. Words of joy and words of sadness, peaceful words and bitter words, longing sighs and bell-like laughter. He caught them all before he had the chance to realize how he loved them. Then, without him knowing or hoping or believing, those words, those sketches of a life and the very picture of a soul, struck through the haze of his boundless nightmare.

He opened his eyes.

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**To the kind, anonymous reviewer of the prologue, if you are still reading:** Thanks for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm actually not a big fan of "eternally unrequited love," exquisite as it sounds, so Naraku's... er, affections won't be completely unrequited. But I do like subtlety and understatement (not sure if I can pull it off though), so you can at least rest assured that this fic won't crumble into a mess of bold declarations of LUV and fluffy I-heart-U's. :)

**Author's Note:** Thanks for reading! Love, hate, or just confused? Please review!


	3. Purgatory

**Wish**

**Disclaimer: **_Sengoku Otogi Zoushi Inuyasha _is the property of Rumiko Takahashi and other parties. All translated text courtesy of _onemanga_._com_. No copyright infringement intended.

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the waaay late update. Took me forever to decide where to take the story... Anyways, everything is at least slightly revised. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

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**Chapter Two**

**-Purgatory-**

"...wish...to be...ordinary."

The mellifluous voice was clearer than ever before. He realized it was coming from his right. Shifting his gaze, he discovered what was the most beautiful creature the gods had ever created.

"Live an ordinary life..."

For a moment, he was so enraptured by her face that he was oblivious to all else.

"...and have a family."

She smiled a bit and suddenly, for the briefest, most excruciatingly blissful of moments, he felt as if he were in heaven. Then, she glanced down at him. Her face paled. The medicine-covered bandage in her hand fell limply back into its bowl.

"You're...awake," she whispered. It was almost a question. She did not expect him to wake up just then. Perhaps she did not expect him to wake up ever.

Immediately, the stricken look on her face vanished. In its place was a smooth countenance, a well-worn look full of kindness and concern. He blinked, not quite believing what he saw. How long had it been since he had last seen an expression even close to hers?

"How are you feeling?" She inquired gently. He tried to answer, but his mouth felt leathery and tight.

"My name is Kikyou. I am the miko of the village not far from here. I found you by the river." She paused, and an uncharacteristic uncertainty marred the evenness of her expression. "You are severely injured. I don't know if...if you'll ever be able -"

"Ki-kyou." His voice was hoarse, magnifying its practiced roughness, but her name was sweet on his tongue. Her eyes widened intently and she unconsciously leaned forward.

"Yes?" For some reason, despite all of the misery contained in his nightmare, he desperately hoped he was still dreaming.

"Where..."

"You are in a cave by the river. I wasn't sure if you could make it back to my village, so I brought you here."

When he did not speak any further, she turned and picked up a bowl and held it up next to him.

"I've brought some gruel for you. Please eat. It will help you regain your strength and heal faster."

The sheer, mundane absurdity of her actions jolted him back into seamy reality. He was alive, barely. His body was burnt and his limbs broken. All of his pain rushed back in a blunt wave. He looked into her attentive eyes and choked out a ragged laugh.

"I'm almost dead, _miko_. You're wasting your time."

Kikyou put the bowl back down and picked up a white cloth. She carefully poured some water from a drinking pouch onto the cloth. "At least drink some water, if you do not feel like eating today," she said softly. She dabbed the cloth over his mouth, letting the coolness drip into his throat.

He closed his eyes and felt the healing liquid wash down the agitation bubbling in his gut.

"Why are you still here?"

"A healer does not leave her patient in his greatest time of need." A ripple of derision crossed his heart.

"If you knew of my deeds, you wouldn't be saying such fucking nonsense." She tensed slightly at his words, but continued dripping water past his melted lips.

"It doesn't matter what you've done." He could hear it in her voice, her sincerity. It choked him.

After she had squeezed the remaining water from the cloth, she picked the bandage back up and finished wrapping it around his arm.

"What is your name?" she suddenly asked. If he had even the slightest, most pitiable inclination to tell her the truth, his mind had immediately and viciously torn the sad notion to pieces.

"Onigumo," he said without a thought. The name twisted in his mouth, mocking him. It was the only name he had answered to in many years.

"Onigumo," Kikyou murmured. Coming from her lips, it sounded more like a blessing than a curse. She gathered her supplies and put them back into her basket. Reaching for the lamp, she paused, then withdrew her hand. She turned to him.

"Please rest well, Onigumo. I will be back tomorrow."

Minutes later, she was gone. His eyes bore into the lantern she had left behind. Unbidden, memories of her voice, the only relief through his nightmares, rushed back. Just moments before, heaven had been sitting _so close_, within an arm's reach away. The darkened ceiling of the cave seemed to drop lower, suffocating him.

So this was hell...

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**Author's Note: **I've referred to spirituality a lot thus far. I'm trying to work from Buddhist/Shinto interpretations, of course, but terminology sometimes becomes a hassle, so I think I'll mostly be using English equivalents. (If you prefer the Japanese terms, please let me know!) The title of this chapter thus really refers to _jigoku_ (a.k.a. _naraku_), or hell, a temporary place of punishment before unenlightened souls are reincarnated.

Thanks for reading! Are the characters in character? Is the plot plausible? How is the writing style? Please review!


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